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Monday, April 9, 2012

Stepping Forward On Behalf of the Abused and Bringing Injustice Into the Light (If the Reformers had Access to the Internet, Don't You Think They Would Use It?)

~~~

Four years ago Kevin
Johnson preached a great series of sermons about the proper love
and care of people by their pastors and also wrote the blog post that
was republished here last week. When I wrote to him to write
something that could be posted here on this topic, he also sent along
some additional discussion that took place elsewhere online. The
matter became a fresh topic of conversation here because of the
Petrys' online posting about their experience of spiritual abuse at
Mark Driscoll's Mars Hill Church.

Pastor Kevin graciously offered some of
the things he wrote about the matter – something that introduces
another subtopic about how we should properly confront and expose
spiritual abusers. Is it permissible to use the internet for such
things? If Matthew 18 does not apply to these situations, what
Scriptures do?

I will simply present the comments as
he sent them to me, but note that they are part of a conversation
which does not include the comments which link all of the comments
together. I also took the liberty of removing a name or two.

From Kevin Johnson's online
comments,

sent to me via
personal correspondence and

published with his
permission.

(emphasis mine)

Concerning the Recent Controversy at
the Mars Hill Church and the Behavior of Mark Driscoll

We ought always to be ready to hear out
hurting brothers and sisters particularly if they've been shut out
from leadership positions. That doesn't mean we have to agree with
everything they present or make publicly available. But, somewhere
along the line the church needs to develop more transparent ways of
dealing with issues like this because there really are elders that
behave badly out there and refusing to listen to those hurt or
further refusing to deal with evil deeds and mistakes in church life
simply works to perpetuate the problem and spread further spiritual
abuse.

. . .I will return and provide
additional reasons why such a defense of the status quo is
inherently mistaken and against the Scriptures. Likely, [unnamed
person] would call the statements of nearly all the minor
prophets inappropriate as well as our Lord's were she living in the
day. The right answer to these things is not always the easy
one.
....
I think it might be more productive to read
Ezekiel
34.

Should We Use the Internet to
Expose Spiritual Abuse? Would the Reformers Use It Today?

The Internet is not a place,
it is a communication medium sufficiently large to both warn and
provide appropriate public information to various parties. Should
the Reformers have been silent about the errors of Rome, too? Or, is
this rationale only good for one particularly modern era?

Seeking Justice for the Abused

It is a mistake of course to pretend
that passages like 1 Timothy 5:19 and 1 Corinthians 6 woodenly apply
to particular situations involving spiritual abuse when no real
justice is available for the offended party via traditional means.
Really, though, when does the Law of God ever woodenly apply without
recourse to godly wisdom? While I agree that we should not go to
secular law courts in general to solve Christian-only issues, there
are times when such is required as a result of spiritual and/or
physical abuse. In our society, aside from civil charges, criminal
charges are brought by the State anyway and not by individuals. In
the case of sexual and physical abuse on the part of ministers any
such activity should be reported and brought to the authorities
because that is generally required by law. So, we can't just quote 1
Cor. 6 and say that's the end of the story.

In America, freedom of religion makes
real discipline in any Reformed environment absolutely voluntary and
well beyond the sort of environment where all parties are able to
receive justice at the hands of an ecclesial court. Denominational
loyalties also generally preclude any sort of fair trial for laymen
when brought against an elder and therefore one should think long and
hard before going down that road. Sometimes the only right recourse
is just to let people know what happened.

In the case of elders behaving badly
and participating in spiritual and other abuse, the church needs to
take care of the real widows and orphans caused by such men in the
life of the church and not pretend that double honor is due only
where an office exists and no real performer of that office is found
except in the manifest ways he can display and model wickedness in
the community of the faithful. The most severe punishment in the
Scriptures is reserved for those who knew better yet still violated
the term and intent of their office.

Addressing the Pharisees

The warnings in Matthew 23 do not
appear to be cushioned with the sort of statements wanting to
preserve the good name of Jesus Christ, the reputation of the church,
or the right of the local church to handle the problem contra making
it so public. Rather, Christ matter-of-factly calls out men by name
-- those sitting in the seat of Moses -- in a rather small community
of people who undoubtedly knew who he was talking about. Furthermore,
Christ makes clear to show the community that the system is broken
and only prophetic rebuke and his coming is left to fix it. So, there
is no need to think this could even be handled by local church
discipline as John 9-10 make quite clear. And, the sort of
descriptive terms our Lord used generally outweigh any sort of
invective we've seen in the likes of testimony against people like
Mark Driscoll in the links above.

The prophets of the Old Testament
mirror similar concerns in passages like Ezekiel 34 where the
messianic promise of Christ is wrapped up in freeing men and women
from oppression at the hands of pastors and ministers behaving badly.
In other words, the behavior displayed by those who practice
spiritual abuse and ministerial malpractice is directly opposed to
the mission and work of the gospel in and among the community of the
people of God. Paul, too, has no problem excoriating certain men by
name when found to be in opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ
even to the point of wishing them emasculated.

In Reformed circles, we are happy to
eject men both out of the ministry and the church on what may seem
the smallest of theological technicalities (cf. Frame, "Machen'sWarrior Children") but we will not take similar action when
similar men abuse their ministerial authority and use the leadership
they have in ways that are unfaithful to God. This is a huge
inconsistency that shows us where our real loyalties lie as Reformed
church men and women. Often, we demonstrate that we care for our
doctrines and our pet leaders more than we care for our fellow
believers. And, that's just idolatry.

How the Reformers Responded

The Reformers of course had no problem
speaking against ministerial corruption and naming names. Sometimes,
they even used anonymous and very drastic means to do so in ways that
would make even the strongest among us today wince. For example, I
haven't seen anyone draw a cartoon where Mark Driscoll is ushering
demons out of his posterior and other sorts of lambasting
sixteenth-century divines had for those who supported the papacy.
That's hardly an objective and fair rendering of the truth sufficient
for us to make a qualified decision on the matter (as if the real
reason for making things public is so we have the right to decide)!
Somehow the Reformers knew they were telling the truth and had
authority to speak prophetically in the community. Christians have
not lost that today either in spite of what [others] might
argue. For all their interesting methods, the Reformers valued
transparency and consistency in calling a spade a spade and that was
most certainly true in exposing ministerial corruption. Why we can't
do the same is beyond me.

Exposing Corruption in the Church
Does Not Taint the Cause of Christ

Telling the truth is not a scandal and
does not hurt the name of Jesus Christ. If that were true, the Bible
would be so much more bland than it is--filled with the details of
corruption prophetically confronted even in the highest of sacred
places in both the Old and New Testaments. It is only when we attempt
to hide the truth that real scandal comes and continues to be
enabled. Providing the truth on the Internet does not aid the enemy.
The enemy is aided by works of darkness which elders behaving badly
do in spades and under cover of their title and work because many
congregants don't take their fellow believers seriously over and
above their devotion to their pastoral leaders even when presented
with irrefutable evidence from a variety of reliable sources or
witnesses.

And, to tell people to be quiet when
they speak against their leaders when you have no basis to judge the
veracity of their comments can be just as damaging to the truth as
not. Since you don't know what the truth is, speaking against
outspoken voices can work to unduly silence those whom God has moved
to make certain things public quite outside normal means. Rather, we
should let anyone speak as they feel led and then the church and
community can work to take action as required. After all, how many
witnesses did Nathan bring to David? Or, Elijah to Jezebel? Yet,
would it not be a mistake to have been there and spoken against God's
prophets and his word to David or Jezebel? We have to realize that
the call to silence a voice is as much a judgment as one that raises
a concern in the larger community of the faithful -- and that's the
hypocrisy of the position presented to us by [others, names removed]
even if they haven't personally come to such conclusions.

Let love be
without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be
devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one
another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation,
devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints,
practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and
curse not. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who
weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in
mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own
estimation.

Thought Reform @ Church?

Concerning Things Cultic within Biblical Christianity

Spiritual Abuse describes the process by which a religious authority misuses power and the trust of their flock in order to meet their own needs or the needs of the system.

Many evangelical churches with sound and solid Biblical doctrine can be considered aberrant or "cultic" when they practice techniques of manipulation and thought reform.

Please read here concerning the many different aspects of this type of manipulation and spiritual abuse including development, practice and recovery from the phenomenon.

The blog title emphasizes that Christians live under the unmerited favor of God (grace) as opposed to earning favor with God. The notable aberrant and cultic system established by Bill Gothard redefines grace as something merited through the good work of submission to authority. Grace cannot be earned through submission to any law and comes by unmerited favor through faith alone!